Trophy Buck Profile

By: Maya Sherman

Maya Sherman connects on her first buck with a bow on her very first time hunting by herself!

Thursday, October 6th was my first time bow hunting, my first time hunting by myself, and my first time getting buck fever. It was exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. After about an hour and a half of taking pictures and trying to be quiet I heard footsteps behind my tree stand. My heart started racing. I held my breath for what felt like forever!

Once I could see it out of the corner of my eye I had to look. Once I realized that it was just a doe, I could start breathing again. About a minute or two after the 1st doe came, another doe walked up and tried to eat where the 1st doe was. The 1st doe started fighting with the 2nd doe. That was the first time I've ever seen something like that. 30 minutes passed and the does were finally gone. Around 6:30pm I told myself that I would only stay for another hour. Not too long after that I seen something coming. It was a buck. I stopped right in front of my tree stand and started eating. Right after that another buck came alone and started eating beside the 1st buck. Both of them were 9 points. 

I knew I wanted the buck with the split brow tines. My grandpa, my dad, and I have all gotten a big buck with split brow tines, so I felt like I needed to continue that. I watched them eat and fight for about 10 minutes or so. Then 2nd buck turned so I could see that he was the one with the split brow tine. After about 5 minutes, I was finally standing up. I was so nervous about getting caught. But to my surprise, everything went smoothly. The buck I had my eye on was turned perfectly. Once I saw brown in my sights I really wanted to pull the release, but I stopped myself and actually aimed.

At this point my heart was beating out of my chest!  I finally hit the release. I saw my buck jump up with the arrow in him and run to my right. I have no idea what happened to the 1st buck. I called my dad, I could barely speak and keep still. My uncle and dad came to my tree stand and we walked not even 30 yards away from my stand to find my deer. That day couldn't have been better. I can't believe how smoothly it went!